


sweet tea in the summer

by nextstopparis



Series: camelove [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Era, F/F, Gen, jus fluff tbh, my favourite pairs of siblings, pre Morgana/Gwen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:40:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29296791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nextstopparis/pseuds/nextstopparis
Summary: Morgana's first summer in Camelot with Gwen, Arthur, and Elyan.
Relationships: Elyan & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Elyan & Morgana (Merlin), Gwen & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Gwen & Morgana (Merlin), Morgana & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: camelove [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151669
Comments: 12
Kudos: 15
Collections: Camelove 2021





	sweet tea in the summer

**Author's Note:**

> this is for camelove 2021 "Day 1: Ladies First". ive been wanting to write something based on taylor swifts seven with gwen/morgwen for so long, and this just punched me in the face this morning. idk what happened in 99% of my lectures but that is O.K. ! this is morgwen if u SQUINT.
> 
> i hope you enjoy this, it was one of the funnest things ive ever written.
> 
> title from taylor swift's "seven" obvs. lol

Morgana’s new maidservant is the only good thing about Camelot.

Gwen, her name is. Guinevere.

Uther introduces them four weeks after Morgana arrives to stay, permanently, in the wretched place. It’s a bit of an awkward affair - Gwen, though obviously raised for her station, is still new to it, and Morgana just doesn’t want to be there at all. However, the day they meet is the warmest day Camelot’s seen since Samhain, so everyone’s mood is a little lighter than usual. 

Perhaps it’s a little silly, but later she credits the warmness and sunny-ness of the day to Gwen. Except maybe it’s not silly at all, because it’s really the only thing that makes sense.

Gwen’s easy to get along with, which is also a refreshing change. Her and Arthur have only slightly warmed up to one another recently, but he’s still annoying and pigheaded, so Morgana prefers dealing with him as little as possible (which, thank god, seems to be a mutual feeling). 

But Gwen is - different.

Gwen smiles at her shyly whenever she’s about to get too close to Morgana, as if she’s not sure whether she has any right yet; Gwen’s hands are light and gentle when they smooth down Morgana’s dress, only hesitant for a moment before gaining a steady confidence. She also always brings Morgana the best sweets from the kitchens, so there’s nothing at all to complain about. 

They talk, sometimes, too. And at first it’s a little stilted, neither knowing what to talk about, but it’s still the surest form of escape from her horrid mind she can get, and Morgana welcomes it. Even the stilted conversations between them - as they’re still figuring each other out - make Morgana feel warmer than she ever has since she arrived. 

Not that that’s too much of a problem though, the awkwardness, because soon their conversations become more comfortable; more familiar. Somewhere between the awkwardness they must’ve learned about all the hidden facets of each other, and it’s - the best. She complains about Arthur as Gwen tries very hard to stifle her giggles, and Gwen - in turn - tells her about Elyan, her own brother. They lament over how frustrating boys are, and giggle, hunched together, as they find more and more ways to make fun of them. 

But that’s not even the most of it.

Because Gwen, at that point, becomes her friend - her _best_ friend - and suddenly, she wants to do everything with her. 

So they go on walks around the grounds; sneak into the kitchens to steal pastries; run around the castle trying to find alcoves no one has found before them. They draw shapes in the dirt with sticks and try to guess what the other is drawing; watch animals from the forest rush and give them names and backstories. 

Two weeks after the summer solstice, Morgana even convinces Arthur (who’s still just as annoying, but much more bearable with, perhaps, some redeemable qualities) to give her and Gwen private fighting lessons - everything from sword fighting to minor hand-to-hand combat techniques. 

It’s one of the best summers of her life - the warmest and brightest and most fun, even in such a horrible place. A horrible place that isn’t, perhaps, all that horrible. A place that’s already starting to feel like home, really.

Her and Gwen’s weeks are filled with new discoveries and playing dress up with pretty clothes and uncontained laughter after an afternoon of learning how to take enemies down. The days are golden and long and hot and sweet, and their nights are blue and short and cool and restful. 

Mostly, they have two types of days:

There are the lazy days, where they opt to lie in the grass near the gardens and admire the flowers. Such days are followed by lively nights where they dance around Morgana’s rooms and collapse on her bed, out of breath more from laughing than dancing.

The other days, where they train with Arthur for hours on end, are some of Morgana’s favourites, though. Sometimes they start at noon and only finish when the king sends for Arthur during the golden hours of the evening. Sometimes, Gwen’s brother joins them; those ones are filled more with games than actual training, but Morgana might wager that they’re even more important, anyway, and so she looks forward to those most of all. During those types of summer days, Gwen and her team up against Arthur and Elyan to see once and for all who the better team is.

(The boys are always such sore losers.)

On the days where it’s just the three of them, Morgana and Gwen always have a small picnic after training, somewhere in the forest. Arthur isn't usually with them during those excursions, but when he is, they all lie down on some blankets or sheets Morgana borrowed and watch the sky. Arthur almost always dozes off, and her and Gwen almost always take turns stacking things on top of him, making it a game to see how much they get away with before he wakes up. Once they made him a flower crown made of daisies, and he didn’t even notice he had it on until Uther asked what he had on his head. 

(He glared at them all throughout dinner that night, but Gwen and her only shot him their most innocent looks, claiming that it was only fair that a prince have a crown. Arthur scowled before going back to his rooms, retiring for the night, but it was obvious how hard he was biting back the blushing smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. That was the same night Morgana and Gwen got belly aches from laughing too hard for too long.)

As they all lie next to each other, Gwen tells them about castle gossip she hears from the other maids, and Morgana listens intently, laughing sometimes, as Arthur pretends he is too good to care about such things. Whenever the gossip’s about him, though, his face turns red with embarrassment as he sputters or looks secretly giddy, glancing at his lap as he plays with the loose threads of his tunics. Morgana makes sure to thoroughly insult him during those specific moments, just so the other maids’ infatuations with the prince won’t get to his head.

(Arthur always scowls at her, sometimes sticking out his tongue, before flopping back down. His head is always tilted towards the sun and he always uses an arm to cover his face from the worst of its heat. Sometimes, when he’s too tired to get up and scowl, he makes very rude gestures towards her with his fingers that one really ought not to make towards a lady. When Morgana points this out, he snorts and just does it again. This is, of course, one of those redeemable features she was talking about.)

(Gwen always laughs during these interactions, loud and bashful and uncontained. The first time it happens, Morgana decides that it’s the best sound she’s ever heard, and makes sure to do anything that will get Gwen laughing like that over and over and over again. As the days move forward, and they all get closer, Gwen’s laughs get even bigger, even more uncontained and lovely, and Morgana wonders at all the butterflies that find home in her stomach).

It’s those moments, more than anything, that lodge themselves in Morgana’s heart and threaten to make her burst with how much love she feels for this little family she has managed to find. (Though, she would die before telling Arthur that).

Of course, there are bad days, too. Days when her and Uther clash or Gwen and Elyan fight, or the weight of Arthur’s responsibilities get the better of him. When that happens, one or two or three, or even sometimes all four of them - if Elyan can get away from work with his father for long enough, or if her and Gwen bribe him enough, or if Arthur complains about being outnumbered by two evil girls enough - dream of nothing but running away. 

“We’ll live in the forest,” Morgana says, her fingers weaving through the impossibly green grass beside her.

“Near a river and a million bushes of flowers!” Gwen giggles, sighing a little. The girls grin at each other and Morgana rests her head against Gwen’s shoulder, linking their free arms together.

Arthur always groans, looking at them with fond - though he’d never admit it - exasperation before turning to look at Elyan, as if they share the burden of having to deal with them. Gwen rolls her eyes, tugging some grass free from the ground before throwing it at both the boys, laughing again as they sputter and cringe away.

“What would we even do in a forest?” Elyan asks, as he brushes small pieces of grass from his hair, shooting his sister an annoyed look to which she just smirks. 

“Just live, you know,” Morgana starts, “away from stupid people - well, I suppose Arthur would still be there -” that gets her an indignant squak from the blond boy resting lazily in the sun a few feet away, “- and away from responsibilities, too. We would just... be free.” 

Her sentence always ends in a sigh, and the silence that meets it is almost a wistful one. The forest buzzes and shines under the summer sun, and Morgana can never stop picturing it:

Gwen and her waking up together late in the morning, their stomachs growling in hunger. Arthur and Elyan just returning from a village close by, their arms full with food and other things they managed to trade for. 

She can picture their mornings being filled with quiet conversations - Elyan and Gwen bickering and her and Arthur fighting to determine who should do what. Their afternoons would be just as they are now: the four of them practicing with swords and sticks and having picnics outside, sometimes going for swims and sometimes making swings on sturdy and high tree branches to push each other on.

Morgana can almost even hear herself and Gwen forcing the boys to go out and pick some flowers - for decoration - and then start laughing at them and their horrible tastes. Teasing them for thinking the orange flowers would look good beside the lilac ones, but setting them up for display, anyway, because it’s their home and all the small quirks of it are what make it so. 

She can picture how sometimes, her and Arthur would go hunting, and other times her and Elyan would sneak away to explore the forest for some medicinal herbs or whatever, snickering with each other as they leave Gwen and Arthur to take care of the harder chores.

Their nights would be filled with laughter - as if the days were short of it at all - because they’d all be full with good food two of them caught and the other two cooked up. They’d be tired from the training but too happy to really show it, and they wouldn’t be scared at all to fall asleep, because everything would be good and easy - leaving no room for nightmares to haunt them - and every day would be different in its sameness. There would be no fear at all, of outgrowing this perfectness.

Such fancies are nice. Morgana dwells on them during the nights that her nightmares get the best of her, hoping they’ll at least soften the blow of whatever horrors await her.

During those special days, the ones where it’s all four of them and the ones where they start at noon and the ones that Arthur promises them he won’t be dragged away, they make sure to take at least two pieces of every pastry the cook will give them (usually only Gwen and Arthur ask, because for some reason the cook’s got a soft spot for Arthur and, well, everyone adores Gwen). That way, when they sit together in the liquid gold of the sunset’s rays, they can each have half of everything, sharing the honeyed treats as they talk of tomorrows and the days after. 

Morgana can’t help admiring the way her friends - this found family of hers - look with their silhouettes outlined by the sun, and doesn’t remember ever loving a group of people so much; so ardently. 

Really, Morgana’s first summer in Camelot is the best summer of her entire life. It’s the summer she falls in love with Gwen’s curls and Arthur’s goals and Elyan’s jokes. The summer that she learns how to count the seconds, minutes and hours in Gwen’s laughs and Arthur’s smirks and Elyan’s stories. 

And the days do pass, because they must, but not before soaking into her skin deep enough for her to memorize them.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! I really hope you liked it:)


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